A SHORT HISTORY OF OPIOIDS
The first authentic account of the use of opium, especially to relieve pain, can be found in the writing of Theophrastus in the third century BC - although it is almost certain that the analgesic effects of an extract of poppy seeds was known long before then: for opium was imported from Cyprus to Egypt in the early 18th Dynasty (1551-1436 BC). As was the case with certain other products of the plant kingdom - such as alcohol, curare and cocaine - the powerful properties of opium were recognised, therefore, many centuries ago.
The most active constituent of opium - morphine - was isolated in 1806. This was an important event because it was then possible to prepare a purified drug, of known potency, from what had previously been a crude and uncertain mixture. Almost fifty years were to pass, however, before drugs such as morphine could be given in a way which was reliable and predictable - that is by injection. This required the invention of the hollow needle and syringe achieved in Edinburgh, 1853. Initially, it was thought that morphine needed to be injected very close to the painful area if it was to have any useful effect.
Morphine was first used in labour in 1906 as one of the constituents of 'twilight sleep'. In an attempt to find a powerful (but non-addictive) pain reliever, pethidine was introduced in Germany in 1939 and was first used during labour in the following year. Pethidine has remained the most popular narcotic drug for use during childbirth - although initial claims that it was a non-addictive drug have, unfortunately, proved to be false. Since the introduction of pethidine, many other drugs have been manufactured (and continue to be manufactured) which share the same basic properties as morphine and pethidine (but at much greater cost) and yet these two drugs have stood the test of time and continue to be used throughout the world today.
For many years, morphine-like drugs were commonly called 'narcotics' (from narcosis, meaning 'to deaden'). Narcosis is not really an accurate description of their principal effect, however and some countries have confused the issue further by also calling other drugs 'narcotics' - such as barbiturates, sedatives and tranquillisers. In order to avoid such confusion, all drugs that behave in the same way as morphine are now called 'opioids' (because, as we shall see later, they act upon the body's 'opioid receptors'). From this point on, I too will use the proper term 'opioid'- instead of narcotic.
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